Dungeon Features
The floors of the Catacombs are filled with all sorts of useful and dangerous features. Some are mundane, like ladders or scaffolds; some are intriguing, like fancy chests and levers. Knowing how you can interact with your environment is essential to learning how to strategically and effectively progressing through the dark and dangerous depths of the Catacombs. There are a few basic categories of dungeon features with static structures, movable objects and hazards. Structures Many of the features of the environment the player traverses can be interacted with to create dangers or opportunities. Doors Plain doors open to either side. They can be busted open by kicking, which sends any being on the other side flying. The brute force way can be faster, especially with your hands full, but the door will never be closed again. Only humanoids can open doors. Ladders Some walls have vines, ladders or some sort of metal rings attached to them. Humanoids can climb them. Beasts either don't need them, or can't use them. Elevators Mechanical platforms that move up and down along a visible track. They can't hurt a player directly, but can transport Boulders, so beware. A boulder trapped beneath is instantly crushed. Locked Doors Marked with an animated key, these doors must be opened with a key found in another part of the level or with the Break spell. After opening one, it becomes a normal door. Exit Door A door with an animal skull over it. When entered, it will transport the kid or any other humanoid to the next level. Grumbuls can use them to escape when badly wounded. You will meet it again if you follow it. Entrance Door Somewhat surprisingly, the door you just came through can be entered again. This makes you "find another way," in practice replacing the current level with another. Grumbuls can use them to escape when badly wounded. You will meet it again if you follow it. You can only go through the entrance door a certain amount of times before the door becomes shut, leaving you stuck in a room with only one way out. Pipe On rare occasions, a pipe can be found. It allow the kid to drop items inside, to get them back at the specified floor. (written in the pipe description). Frozen Exit Found in the Anticropolis gateway, these work like a regular exit door but must be unfrozen, usually with a nearby Flamethrower Trap. Possible to get softlocked. Braziers These free-standing torches can be found all over the floors of the Catacombs, and while they cannot be picked up they can certainly be knocked over with a thrown object. Knocking over a brazier will start a fire; this burns any enemies or wood scaffolds in the area of effect, boils potions, and cooks food. You can refill your Lantern at a brazier, however this will extinguish it. Shifting Block Found in many rooms of the Upper Dungeons. One moment it works as a block to stand or climb on, another it fades completely into background. If you are caught in the space when it shifts on, it will knock you aside, and often send tumbling. If the nearest tile space is taken, it can 'critically block' you to death; however, you can be saved from death in this situation by the Extra Tough stat boon (if above 75% health) or an equipped Undo spell. Algae Underwater plants are background for all intents and purposes, but can be drained with a Charge Star. Campfires These small fires can be safely walked over without risk of ignition. However, they will boil Potions, heat Boulders, and cook Food when close to it. They are usually found with multiple Grumbuls standing around it. Trapped Charge Stars Some wall sections wil have a star engraved on them. Hit it with a weapon to obtain a Charge Star. Levers They emit a signal once struck by a weapon or thrown object. They often cause a slim bridge to rise to the surface of Lava. Hit such a switch to make rooms easier to traverse, and hit it again to submerge the bridge (and everything on it) into the lava once again. Beware, some levers are linked to a Flamethrower Trap. Wooden Scaffolds These wooden floors are strong enough to hold the weight of a player or an enemy, but not strong enough to support the weight of a crushing trap or a boulder. They will break away, causing the trap or boulder to continue on without resistance. Scaffolds will also ignite and burn away when in contact with fire. Handheld torches and lanterns are acceptable, but fire spells and overturned braziers will cause the wooden structures to collapse. Wooden Scaffolds can be broken with the Break spell. Boulders and other heavy items can also break these structures. Stairway Stairways act in the same way as exit and entrance doors. Stairways allow you to travel from one side of the room to another instantly, much like the teleportation trap, except that you can choose whether to go through a stairway, and can just as easily go back the way you came. So far this has been seen as early as floor 2 and is an extremely rare structure. Snowbank Snow in Anticropolis is usually knee deep at most. In some areas it is deep enough to hide whole creatures, big objects and traps. You can dig through snow by swinging your weapon. Frolix Dens contains large amount of snow. Geyser Elevator Found in Anticropolis. Similar to a normal Elevator. Despite its abrupt movements and rough appearance, it is harmless towards the player. Pixies Found in Anticropolis. These floating glowing spots can propel Kids and other humanoids in any direction. When a player approaches them, they trap you mid-air and fling you in the selected direction by pressing the jump key. The blue arrow points in the direction you'll be thrown to, and you can adjust it using the arrow keys. Note you can still take damage whilst interacting with them. The Ghost The Ghost is a Kid that died within the catacombs. He appears every 3rd floor and can be used to improve your kid by removing detrimental traits, adding beneficial traits or teaching you how to fight. When selecting the ghost, by holding the up arrow near him, the ghost will prompt you with 3 text options: ''Help me improve myself: Will be able to remove negative traits (loud clumsy etc.) or gain beneficial traits (sneaky resourceful etc.) in exchange for leaning points. 'Teach me how to fight:' Will teach you weapon skills in exchange for learning points. 'I seek your wisdom: 'Says one of the following quotes: * ''Have you ever tried making slime souffle? What? What do you mean it's 'not implemented yet?' * I don't think I've ever seen you down this far before, don't let that make you feel special. * I've been down here a long time... a long, long, long time. Okay, maybe just a long time. * Slimes aren't very nutritious unless you go all in, byats are the opposite. Best in Moderation. * No, you can't have my sword. it's magic, and stuck. * Balance, stealth, recourcefulness, endurance, skill... all are necessary traits for survival in The Catacombs! Movable objects Objects which player can move around to a certain degree, but are generally hard, undesirable or plain impossible to carry. Orb of Leveling By far the most coveted consumable, the Orb of Leveling allows for the advancement of either two stats or a stat and a skill. It's usually best to use the Orb immediately, but due to the healing it applies, it can be held on to and used later during runs with limited healing options. The Orb will heal you the exact amount of LUC you have and will increase your max health every time you consume it, starting at floor 2. The Orb can be thrown quite far, and its levitation causes it to bounce around quite a lot. The Orb does not sink into liquids, and is not destroyed by fire. The Orb may be Corrupted by shedding blood onto it (i.e. pouncing Grumbuls or throwing it at Byats). This Corrupted Orb is an instakill to any enemy caught in its blast radius, including your Kid. The Orb can still be consumed after it's corrupted, and, just like the normal Orb, cannot leave the current floor. Chests The dusty boxes that litter the halls can hold welcome rewards for those who can get to them. Their heft makes them less than portable, but they can be used like anything else to throw at lower enemies or hold down pressure plates. Consuming them opens the chest and spills its contents, the drops being susceptible to physics (falling, tipping off torches, etc.). Chests come in three varieties: common, fancy and soul. Common chests are plentiful, containing coins and a random, but usually average piece of equipment. Rare chests contain more coins and better equipment rewards, but are often guarded by several Traps or pools of Fishanha. Soul chests are unique in that they demand souls for treasure, any corpse that goes near the chest will be destroyed, and the chest will "charge up", this can be done until a certain message is prompted, after which it will not charge any more, it offers great treasure at the maximum charge. Like any large item, chests severely limit movement, unless the player has the Heavy Lifting boon. Corpses Most defeated foes will leave behind a corpse, all of which can be consumed, sometimes healing or providing other effects both good and bad. Humanoids (Grumbuls, Skeletons, Owlmen, Burrah Bois) leave behind heavy corpses, which turn into skeletons when consumed. Bloody corpses can be thrown into pools to attract Fishanhas. Grumbul corpses and Skeletons can be looted for any equipped gear by using the "stow" button. Unless the player has the Heavy Lifting boon, heavy corpses will reduce speed and jump capabilities, as well as reducing throwing range. Small enemies have a chance to leave behind a corpse that can be consumed or thrown at enemies. These small corpses may be destroyed when thrown at the floor or a wall. This does not apply to Ball of Goo, Ball of Slime, and Ball of Mucus which are destroyed with fire instead. Small corpses also count as small items and can be stowed in your inventory. Barrels As in almost all games, the main purpose of barrels is to release items when broken. Stacks of barrels may be empty, or contain Goos, Oogs, Rats, Potions, Arrows, Potatoes, Kernels, Grumbul Assassins and maybe more. When hit, a barrel may fall over and roll, similar to a Boulder. This can cause damage and may sometimes be fatal. One should be cautious when breaking barrels. If the player has the Heavy Lifting boon, you can pick up the barrel and hold the down button to hide in it. Unfortunately, you cannot move or attack while hiding. Mushrooms Pink, glowing mushrooms grow in many areas of the Upper Dungeons. They make very good springboards. If you need to drop on them without bouncing, hold the down button. They generate green spore clouds, and anyone staying near for too long will become poisoned. Additionally, they are not especially edible. Their best uses are trampolines, lighting up dark areas or poisoning the catacomb's water supply. When left on their own, they will often grow into larger versions, as well as multiply. Mushrooms can be destroyed by attacking them with a weapon. Boulders Boulders are heavy, movable objects that can be interacted with using the grab button. Boulders crush anyone they land on, friend or foe. They can also be moved around by attacking them at the cost of increased weapon durability loss (try dropping your weapon and bashing them with your fists). Enemies horizontal to rolling boulders will take minor damage, but anything under a falling boulder will be crushed instantly under ordinary circumstances, similar to the crushing trap. Boulders can be picked up and thrown short distances with the heavy lifting stat boon. Giant Snowball Similar to Boulders, these giant balls of snow only appear in the Anticropolis. An entity can be encased within one when the snowball picks up speed. This forces you to slash your way out. When caught within one, it is possible to control yourself to some degree by moving in one direction and pressing the attack button. Stone Block A stone block occupies 1 tile. It crushes beings it falls on. It can be pushed and pulled, similar to a Boulder, but it doesn't roll. Stone blocks fall on your head in collapsing passages. The remnant of a broken Crushing Trap is called Boulder, but it actually functions like a stone block. Hazards Potentially dangerous but quite obvious dungeon features. If you fear death from nowhere, see Traps. Water Pools Pools of water, both shallow and deep, are strewn about, and can hinder movement and cause suffocation. To complicate matters, dangerous Fishanhas often swim around and pounce at anything that gets wet nearby. Knocking a Grumbul into a pool of Fishanhas is almost always an assured kill. Treasure sometimes spawns underwater, but too many Fishanhas can make treasure hunting too dangerous. If a pool of water comes into contact with a zapped enemy, the water will zap all enemies that come into contact with it and cause damage over time. Knocking a zapped enemy into large pools of Fishanhas dispatch all threats quickly. Water pools can also be steamed and kill all the enities within it. This can be accomplished by rolling a hot boulder into it, or by casting a heat spell into it. Empty potion bottles can be dropped into water to become water bottles, which cleanse the palette. See Food for details on diet. Lava Pools Lava, as one would expect, is an extremely dangerous liquid that appears in quantities and arrangements similar to water. Lava pools emit light and cause severe fire damage, as well as igniting anything they contact. Potions dropped into pools evaporate and foodstuffs become cooked, but Byats will become charred quickly if cooked in lava. Lava pools often have Levers and bridges nearby, especially when near exit doors. The surface of a lava pool can be cooled to form safe platforms. Throwing any potion (except water) into the lava and waiting will permanently solidify the surface, making it safe to walk on. Lava can also be bottled by exposing an empty bottle directly to the lava. This works identically to how water is added to empty bottles. However, retrieving a bottle thrown into the lava or dunking the bottle manually by jumping in while holding it is dangerous and will likely result in death. A couple ways to fill a bottle with lava safely include: * Tossing the empty bottle into the lava pool, then using Portal to retrieve it (place one end at a safe location facing downward and the other directly below the bottle of lava) * Jumping into the lava while holding the bottle and immediately using Cure while returning to safety * Using Boiling Veins (Infernus trance) or Purity (Cure trance) to make the player character temporarily immune to fire damage before filling the bottle Ceiling Spikes These spikes aren't hidden so they will only hurt by jumping or getting thrown into them. They will do 3 damage. Floor Spikes They only hurt when you fall on them. They do 5 damage. Note: If you drop a Grumbul corpse or a Grumbul dies on floor spikes, you may use their corpse as a platform. This means you can drop through it and super jump off it normally. If you drop through it you will usually not take spike damage, unless a stray item under the corpse artificially increases the distance. Scythes Swinging back and forth, these will sever limbs or decapitate. Deals 4 damage. They can be avoided by rolling under, or - for the cheeky - jumping over it (between the blade and the anchor point). The trap can be destroyed altogether by casting Break on the anchor point. Doing so also produces the (Broken) Swinging Blade Trap item. Trivia * Try placing a hollow star next to the water to suck any Fishanhas out. * You can bake potatoes by throwing it into steaming water (needs checking). * When equipped with the Shoes of Gossamer, you can hold the jump button while falling to avoid taking any damage from floor spikes. This only works from a height of 5-4 or lower.